Genesis chapter 16. And as you're turning over there, I want to say I'm so glad that every single one of you are here in this room. There are moments in which this room, it is a spiritual house, but this room can become a scary place. Every Thursday and Friday I lock up the building, and some nights we lock it up real late, and especially on Fridays when the collegians are hanging out, we have a great time and everybody leaves, it can be like 11 o'clock, sometimes even later than that.

And after everybody leaves, I turn off all the lights and I come over walking this way to set the alarm, and in my mind I'm thinking, "Oh my gosh, I gotta go, I gotta go, I gotta go." Because it's not just dark, I mean at that time it's just pitch black.

In a big room for some reason there's a weird hum. Have you guys ever felt that? And then in certain bigger rooms you hear weird creaking noises, and you're just like, "Hurry!" And then you just want to go. Well, at some nights, some people are gracious and then they say, "Hey, I'll just lock up with you." Like Alex does that a lot.

And I look over at him and I'll be like, "I'm so glad you're here." It's because it's just kind of unsettling, you know what I mean? The fear of the unknown in the pitch black ginormous room. And I'll tell you a hilarious story. One time we cleared the entire sanctuary for an event, and I was locking up after, and I set the alarm and I just started running.

I started running that way, and lo and behold, all of a sudden, boom! And I just fall head over, and I'm like rolling over like, "What is that?" Someone left one chair, like right smack in the middle. And nobody saw. I just ducked my head and slowly walked out the church all hurting.

And it was just a miserable time. I tell you these stories because sometimes having somebody with you just helps a lot. Okay? I mean, it's not like if seriously, I don't know, a demon or somebody comes out that just having one person is going to save the day, but it's just what helps.

And the thing about it is we live in a generation, and we've always lived in a generation, in a world with a lot of pain, with a lot of hurt, with various things that frustrate, with all this anxiety. And in reality, it just helps a lot to have somebody around.

And the story that I want to read to you is a story about an interesting character that's typically not highlighted in the Bible. Her name is Hagar. She is an Egyptian slave. She is a maidservant. And although in previous times I've read this passage, I might have glossed over her character, this time I want to highlight for you that this is an individual who experienced a great amount of affliction, but found help in the presence of one.

Let's take a moment to read this story. Go over again in chapter 16. In verse 1, this is what it says in chapter 16. "Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had born him no children, and she had an Egyptian mate whose name was Hagar." I'm going to give you a little background story and then read the rest of the passage.

It starts with Abraham, who at this moment is still Abram, okay? He was called, he got a call from God, not the phone call, he got a call from God from when he was living in the Ur of Chaldees, which is modern day Saudi Arabia, and God said you need to leave your family, you need to leave your home, and I want you to journey because I'm going to give you a land.

I'm going to give you an amazing land, but more than that, I'm going to give you a son and people, and many descendants will be yours. Abraham, Abram, had that promise, he was already married, but even 10 years after, she was barren. So there was frustration in Sarai. She was wondering what's going on, didn't we receive the promise 10 years past, nothing is happening, so remember what she says, she has a brilliant idea.

She says, "I've got this maidservant, why don't you have her be a surrogate mother and have a baby through her?" And like a dodo, Abram says, "Okay," and then he has a baby through this maidservant, and you would imagine what could happen there. A lot of strife. What ends up actually happening is, Hagar, the maidservant, she too is not a good character so far because she ends up getting a sense of pride.

She looks at her master, who is Sarai, and says, "This is how you do it, this is how you have babies," you know, she's boasting, and then in the scriptures it says that she looked on her master with despise, okay, she was despicable in her eyes. And so Sarai, upset, all of a sudden looks at her husband, "Look what you did," and he's going, "What, what, I didn't do anything," he's like, "This is your fault, you know, judge between me and God, look what happened, ahhh," and then we pick up our story, okay?

Verse 6, it says, "But Abram said to Sarai, 'Behold, your maid is yours in your power, do to her what is good in your sight.' So Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence." So Hagar flees into the wilderness. Verse 7, "Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way ashore.

He said, 'Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?' And she said, 'I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.' Then the angel of the Lord said to her, 'Return to your mistress and submit yourself to her authority.'" Dang. Verse 10, "Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, 'I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.' The angel of the Lord said to her further, 'Behold, you are with child, and you will bear a son, and you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.

He will be a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand will be against him, and he will live to the east of all his brothers.' Then she called on the name of the Lord who spoke to her, 'You are a God who sees.' For she said, 'Have I even remained alive here after seeing him?' Therefore the well has been called Bir Laharoi.

Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael." Let's take a moment to pray that God will bless our time in the Word. Father God, we want to take a moment to pray that as we read Old Testament stories, help us to glean insights that would affect us.

Mainly, help us to see who you are in this story. God, your character of mercy and love for all of us here, may our hearts be encouraged and lifted up by the reading of your Word. We also lift up the church at BMC. God, that your spirit and presence would be there.

Lord, that that church would experience you. Lord God, we pray, Father Lord, that for Pastor Aaron and the family in the midst of time in which they suffer, would your presence ever be more clear. And God, we pray for Pastor Peter that as he ministers, as he preaches the Word and encourages, would you use them as your hand and feet.

We thank you in Christ's name, Amen. So we read this story, and there's amazing stuff to be learned here. But the thing about it is, the multiple times that I read it, I read it as this is the pinnacle story of how God called us to faith, and then we botch it.

Okay? Because Abraham, in many ways, was the father of faith, and he is to us an example of somebody who through faith is considered righteous. And we know that here in chapter 16, this is an epitome of a very typical prototype story of how they did not exercise faith.

They exercised their own will and then made a mess of it. So, silly Abe, why did you listen to your wife? You know? And then you have silly Sarai, how come you couldn't wait? Why have this silly idea of having your maidservant do what God said he would eventually do for you?

Yes, it's the time. Yes, it's all the waiting. Yes, it's all the frustration. Yes, Sarai probably received a lot of other ridicule and mocking. How come the wife of the patriarch isn't having children? Where's the promise? Where's all this? I bet you she was mocked, because even Hagar felt this sense of mockery towards her.

And then, Hagar, you silly lady, if so, you know, they asked you to do this, why have this arrogance? And the reason why I highlight that is because this story typically is preached by way of saying they were asked to have faith, they failed to have faith, and then so here come the consequences.

Many strife. Sarai and Abram are like fighting each other, you did this, and Abram's like, what did I do? You did this, you know? And then strife between Hagar and the master. Not only that, but Ishmael is born, and we know, if you guys know the story, that he is not the promised line.

As a matter of fact, if you read Arabic traditions, so, you know, all the different religions around that Middle Eastern area, Islam, and the various religions that are associated with it, they trace their ancestry to Ishmael. The great prophet of Islam, Muhammad, he traces his ancestry to Ishmael. And so what you see is, not only are your consequences immediate, and your relationships are not all broken because of your lack of faith, you create a future genealogy of strife.

A different nation to which the Israelites are gonna continue to fight. Ah, frustrated with your lack of faith. That's how typically the story is taught. But now when I read this story, I find something quite amazing, something altogether different, which is this. If you look at verse nine, an angel of the Lord appears.

Or I guess verse seven, the angel of the Lord appears. And then in verse eight, he asks Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come and where are you going? Hagar is in the wilderness. She's wandering the wilderness. There's a sense in which she's essentially being cast out, and without somebody providing for her, a tribe or a clan, so to speak, a family, she has no chance of survival.

She's literally in the desert, wandering to die. Angel of the Lord appears, where are you going? I'm just fleeing. That's what Hagar says. But then what's profound is starting from verse nine, the angel starts to speak to her, and then he first tells her a correction. Return to your mistress and submit yourself to her authority.

Make it right. But then furthermore, verse 10, moreover the angel of the Lord said to her, I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count. Does that strike you as a bit unusual and shocking? To me it does because remember, Sarai is not a part of Abraham's family.

Sarai is an Egyptian slave. She's an Egyptian slave. She's not part of that line. But then when he gives her a promise, like I'm going to greatly multiply you and your descendants will be so numerous you can't count it, what does that sound like? That sounds like the promise he gave his promised people, and more specifically his promised person, Abraham.

So what I'm saying is, the focus of the story all of a sudden changes to, it's not simply that God is frustrated with the lack of trust of Abraham and Sarai. More so the focus of the story is on God intervening with his grace and mercy, promising stuff that wasn't even deserving.

You see what I'm saying? And so if you look at this further, look at verse 11. The angel of the Lord spoke to her further, "Behold," okay, holds her attention, "you are with child, your child will bear a son and you shall call his name Ishmael." And in every single one of your Bibles, no matter what translation you have, you should probably have a little subscript or a little number.

And it sometimes tells you what those Hebrew names mean. If you have a, again, like a reference Bible, it tells you. That name means God hears. God hears. So that's my first point for the sermon. A truth to encourage your hearts this morning. God hears. Sarai did not give that son a name.

Abraham didn't give that son a name. Hagar did not give that son a name. God, through the angel, gave that son a name, which means God wanted to make a point for us to remember. Hagar is not gonna forget. I was wandering the desert, left to die. I was a servant.

I mean, think about this for a moment. She was a servant asked to do something that even, yes, although in that day and age, that stuff kind of happened. Can you imagine? "You can't have children, so you're gonna do it." It's like, what? How do you ask someone to do that?

You're gonna make me go through childbirth and labor and that son's not really even gonna be mine? Whoa. But even then, after that, she's mistreated and then she's cast out and left essentially to die. And then in that midst, God hears. That's point number one. That God is a God who hears.

When I look out into this congregation this morning, with my eyes, I see a gathering of people well-dressed, prepared for service, which is good. You guys are presenting your best before God. You guys are in your Sunday best. You guys have combed your hair, all that kind of stuff.

Save a few. I'm just kidding. But that's what I see with my eyes. I see this. And when I see this, I'm all encouraged. I feel great. I feel like, yeah, I'm with the household of God worshiping. But I know that people in here still internally struggle. Some of us struggle with our jobs.

Some of us struggle financially. Some of us struggle in our marriages, relationships, families. Some of us struggle with our own sins and vices. Some of us struggle in so many different ways. The thing about it is, in the midst of that struggle, I want to encourage you this morning, God sees through everything.

God has perfect knowledge. Can I point out something to you? That God saw us, had our situation and circumstance, a sense of desperation. God saw her fear. God saw her affliction. And so the passage says to us very clearly, I'm naming him Ishmael because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.

Yes, amen. But God has a perfect knowledge of Hagar. He sees her unborn child. He sees their future. He understands her completely. I want to encourage you this morning. God sees through every circumstance. God sees through every pain, every affliction, every hurt, every moment of feeling isolation, every moment of desperation.

God sees it. And I want our hearts to be encouraged with that truth this morning. But you know, there's even more, something just more profound about just simply that point. Okay, God hears. But the fact of the matter is, if I am honest, a lot of my suffering and the hardship and afflictions, it's self-imposed.

In the sense that there are situations to which the affliction and the hurt that's in your life, you just have no control over. And so perhaps Hagar, she feels like that. That lady Sarai, my master, what a wicked lady. And she's sitting there thinking, she's making my life miserable.

Okay? But Hagar also has to own up to the fact that her arrogance and pride cause a rift in the relationship. Sarai, she might be complaining, "Yeah, look what you did. Look at all this stuff." And Abraham could be sitting there like, "Hello? What did you expect? You literally had a maidservant replace you.

What did you expect?" It's a lot like some of the complaints we have. It makes me think of in recent history, the last couple months, I've had a lot of expenditures from moving car things and repairs. Sometimes I complain, I'm like, "Oh, why is it so expensive?" And it's really expensive to get four new tires for a minivan.

It's really expensive. And then on top of that, we needed brakes. So realizing, "Oh my gosh, having new brakes and pads and rotors for a minivan is crazy expensive." So I start to verbalize my expression of frustration. Like, "Oh my gosh, those auto mechanics, they're just ripping me off because I know how to do pads.

It's much cheaper than that, but it's like this much money. And then tires, oh my gosh, I can't believe it's that much money. And I can sit here and complain and feel like, 'Woe is me. How am I going to afford all this?'" And then someone can look at me and be like, "But you like that minivan.

You love that minivan. You bought that minivan." It's like, "I did. I love it." You guys know, I mean, some of you guys don't know, but I've been wanting a minivan since I was in high school. It's kind of like one of my life goals accomplished. But you get what I'm saying.

Sometimes we feel like we're in a world of hurt, but looking at the scenario, it's due to our own devices. It's sometimes due to our reactions. It's sometimes due to our poor choices. And yes, it is sometimes due to, just like with Abram and Sarai, lack of faith. But not always.

Why I bring that up? Because in this scenario, the consequences of the family rift and the consequences of being cast out, consequences, our fault. Nevertheless, God shows up. This is our God. Nevertheless, God hears. Do we read in the Bible, "You made a mess of it. I told you so.

Now fix it. You better get that straight before you come to me." A lot of time, God says, "I'm your father. Why don't you ask me?" He sees it. He hears it. He knows it. He understands. Even when a lot of that pain and affliction is due to our own devices.

This is our God. He is the one who hears. Now I want to just highlight to you how important this theme is in this passage, because it's just like shouting at me now when I read this. So take a look again at the chapter. It says again, "Behold, you're going to have this son, and God names him Ishmael." And God says, "Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction, God hears and sees what you're going through." And then her response, Haggad's response, go over to verse 13.

It says, "Then she called on the name of the Lord." She says, "Called on the name of the Lord." Lord is cap and all caps because that's the name of Yahweh. But then it says, "She called on the name of the Lord who spoke to her. You are a God who sees." And that we have to pay attention to.

Because in the Hebrew, it just simply reads, "You God see me." Or like, "You God see." But in that right center, there is a focus on God's name. And the name is El Roy. If you're taking notes, write that down. E-L-R-O-I. El Roy. She calls on the name of the Lord, Yahweh, and then she calls him something else.

El Roy. Yahweh, El Roy. Why does she do that? Because she is emphasizing one point, one singular thing she's focused on in the midst of her pain, in the midst of her devastation and feeling desperate. She experiences God and then she calls him something, which is El Roy. And that El Roy simply means, "The God who sees." You, the God who sees, see me.

Quite beautiful. I want to encourage your hearts that as Hagar is experiencing that, have you ever felt that? Some of us, we feel isolation. When you're in pain, sometimes the knee jerk reaction is like, "Oh, I'm in pain." But then it's just me, right? And oftentimes we are designed to have someone know what we're going through because we know that's going to help.

But even that's hard. How many of you guys have had a difficulty sharing because part of you says, "Why bother sharing? I don't know if they can understand. I have to explain the background. I have to explain what I'm thinking. I have to explain what they did. I don't want to go through all that.

And even if I did go through all that, maybe they won't even understand." It's true. Maybe they won't. Because for us, although it's good to share with our brothers and sisters, don't stop doing that. People are simply trying their best to understand. Hagar is saying, "God, you see me.

You know me. You understand me." This is a beautiful passage. "Therefore," verse 14, "therefore the well, the place to which she was at, was called Bir Lahoroi." And that probably has another subscript, a little asterisk on it. It says, "Behold, as being cadet, she had been bereft to say, 'This place still stands today.'" Do you know what that means?

It means the well to which the living one sees. So by His name, by her response, by the way that she names even the location to which she stands, it just screams at this truth. We need to understand God hears and sees the afflictions of His people. I want to just encourage you guys again that for us, perhaps some of us, we are hurting and we have difficulties in our private life.

And sometimes we have inclinations and desires to let people in and have them help us, but sometimes we're even afraid of that because after all the efforts, it might not help. I want to encourage you. God has blessed the people of faith with the congregation, the brothers and sisters of Christ, so that we might all continue to encourage each other in love.

But to me, one of the profound things of a fellowship of a church that does that is that we make the reality of God's presence all the more real in those moments of pain. And so I want to encourage you, if some of you guys are hurting in private, if some of you guys have certain afflictions, remember that God is Yahweh El Roy, the God who sees your afflictions.

He saw Hagar's fears, He saw Hagar's worries, He saw everything about her and even the generations to come. And she was encouraged simply with that. In the end, she had to go back. Isn't that an interesting point? She had to go back to a Brahman Sarai. It wasn't simply that, okay, I'm going to promise all this stuff and whabam, peace.

God encouraged her with His knowledge of her and His presence. But you know what's interesting? The story continues to go. The story doesn't stop there. Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 21, verse 9. Genesis chapter 21, verse 9. Okay? Okay. And to give you a little backdrop, in Genesis chapter 16, Ishmael is born and then 13 years pass from then until chapter 21.

Within those 13 years, there's a lot of stuff more so pertaining to Abram and his, again, being a chosen person, a figure that God wants to create a nation through. And then finally, at the beginning of chapter 21, they have a son. Isaac is born. Isaac is a baby.

He's just being weaned. So maybe about one years old, you know, whenever children are weaned off the mother's milk. But what's really interesting about this story is, so now you have potential for greater drama. And here we pick up chapter 21. Let's see. Chapter 21, verse 1, it says, "Then the Lord took note of Sarah, and as he had said, the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised.

So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age at the appointed time of which God had spoken of him." So now you know what's happening. Verse 9, "Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had born to Abraham, mocking. For she said to Abraham, 'Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.'" Oof, drama is unfolding.

Essentially what you have is, so far, 13 years have passed, so Ishmael is probably 13, 14 years old. So here he is, fully comprehending everything that's going on. Now this baby is born, but the baby seems to be now the true heir of the family. So you can imagine Ishmael thinking, "Oh, seriously?

It's a baby." Right? So he's looking down on the baby of promise, and then Sarah sees that, and as a mom, she's just like, "Fah!" You know? She gets upset, she's like, "How dare he mock my son!" And then she goes to Abraham and says, "Get rid of the whole family.

Mom, son, I want them out of here. They're not gonna be a heir with my son." Well, let's keep reading here. Orally, laugh. Verse 11. Verse 11 says, "The matter distressed Abraham greatly because of his son. But God said to Abraham, 'Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid.

Whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her. For through Isaac your descendants shall be named. And the son of the maid, I will make a nation also, because he is your descendant.'" Okay? So you notice what's happening? Because Abraham was without a son, and Ishmael essentially was the only son, I'm guessing Abraham connected with Ishmael.

He had an affinity and said, "Oh, I can't do that. This is technically my son." Right? But then God says something very interesting, which is God affirms Ishmael is not the promised line. So he says, "Do what Sarah says and cast her out." Ouch. Right? Ouch. So, verse 14.

"So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and the skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder and gave her the boy and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba. Then the water and the skin was all used up.

She left the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him about a bow shot away. For she said, 'Do not let me see the boy die.' And she sat opposite him and lifted up her voice and wept." Let's take a moment to pause there.

God promised Hagar that her son would be blessed and would have many descendants. But where is Hagar now? She's walking the wilderness. Friends, the simple truth that we have the promises of God does not mean you're going to be free from difficulty, heartache, and pain. Those will exist. And in this moment, can we all affirm the fact that perhaps the vast majority of us have not been afflicted to the degree she is now?

Some of us have been hurt. Some of us have felt distress. Maybe we felt in many ways isolated, outcast, whatever it may be. But that hurt, probably speaking, is not as great as this. Let's take a moment to just imagine what she's gone through. She's being cast out of her home with nothing but her son and a water bag and some perhaps provisions.

But the thing about it is it's not like as though some kid was running away from home in this day where they can just go to a buddy's house. They can go to McDonald's. They can go to the library. They can crash somewhere. This is the desert. There's nothing but rock.

There's dangerous animals. And for a woman with a young child to go out, it is again, second time death. She's going out and remember, her boy is 14. When I first read this story, I remember thinking, "Oh, that's so sad. She let her little infant down by the bush." It wasn't an infant.

And the reason why that matters is because you can imagine that how exhausted, how dehydrated, how spent and weak they must have been that she had to lay down a full-grown boy next to a bush. And then think about the mother's pain to walk away from her son. Oh, it chokes me up just thinking about it.

To turn her back and walk away from her son. And we read later on that the boy was crying. The boy was crying. So she goes a bow shot away and she prays essentially and says, "Please, don't let me see my son die." Because seriously, the nightmare of every parent is to see their child go before them.

So she's essentially saying with that statement, "I would rather die first than my own son." Hagar's affliction is intense. It's so intense. She is at her wit's end. There's nothing she can do. She can try desperately to grab strength somehow, but what is she going to do in a moment like that?

And that is when our God appears. When the pain is so real and so severe. Verse 17, "Then God heard the lad crying. And the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, 'Hagar, what is the matter? Do not fear for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is.

Arise, lift up the lad and hold him by the hand for I will make a great nation of him.' Then God opened her eyes. She saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin of water and gave the lad a drink. God was with the lad. He grew, he lived in the wilderness and became an archer." Amen.

This story, again, of Hagar to me before was just failure of faith. The story more so highlights, uplifts God's intervention of mercy through his presence. And so the second truth for you to write, the first was God hears. The second truth is God is there. His very presence is there.

There is a passage in Ezekiel chapter 48. You don't have to turn there because it's a long passage. I'm just going to summarize and give you the gist. In Ezekiel chapter 48, God is promising the nation that I will restore you. You are in pain now. You know the history of Israel.

They were not just felt rejected, they were literally overcome by pagan nations. They were held captive and enslaved and they were oppressed and were crying out to God. And God through the prophets regularly promised them, 'I will restore you.' And God says, 'I will restore you to a degree where you will have a beautiful city.

And this city is so real, I'm going to give you the measurements.' So chapter 48 of Ezekiel, God gives the measurements of the pillars. God gives the measurements of the temple and the foundation, the courtyard. And in that, in the midst of that, do you know what he says?

Jot this down as a reference. Ezekiel 48, 35. And the name of that holy city is the Lord is there. That term, the Lord is there, is so unique because it's the only place in the entire Bible where that term is used and that term is Yahweh Shammah. Jot that down.

Yahweh Shammah. We learned a moment ago that God is Yahweh El Roy, the God who sees. Here, we notice that God is the God who is there. His presence is there and His presence fills the city and that is their reward. That is their blessing. That is their success.

Not simply to overcome those pagans, not simply to overcome my financial distress, not simply to overcome my work distress, family distress, God's presence is their portion. And so I want to encourage you, brothers and sisters in Christ, we know theologically that God's presence is everywhere. Right? God, if you guys are in BCC, you guys learned that today along with a thousand other things.

God is omnipresent. He is always present in all places. That means He both rules in that area, arena. He sees what's happening. He exercises absolute control. But for this poor Egyptian slave, it means God's grace is with them. Can I, if any of you are struggling, hurting, seeking out for some strength, for whatever you can find, can these words encourage your heart?

God is the God who sees. God is the God who is there with you. This truth is so profound. You know, the reason why I'm preaching this from the book of Genesis is because I've been walking through the book of Genesis with the youth group students now for almost a lap, full year, and I'm still not done with the book of Genesis.

And the thing about it is I see this theme repeated over and over again. And I want to highlight it for you. So although this is a bit of a Bible verse look up exercise, please bear with me and let's go to Genesis 26 verse three. Genesis 26 verse three.

In Genesis 26 verse three, this is already a time in which Abraham is almost out of the picture. Isaac is young. He's leading his family and there is a famine in the land. There is desperation simply for basic necessity, food. And God says this, verse three, sojourn in the land and I will be with you.

I will bless you for to you and your descendants that will give all these lands. I will establish the oath which I swore to your forefather. Later on in the same chapter, Isaac runs into another problem, limited resource, lack of food. There is also lack of water. And so with his neighbors, now there's strife.

It's like, hey, this well is ours. No, this well is ours. But if you give up the well, what's going to happen? Your people are going to die of thirst. They need the water. What are we going to do? This is what God says, verse 24. So this is Genesis 26 verse 24.

And the Lord appeared to him that same night and said, I am the God of your father, Abraham. Do not fear for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of my servant, Abraham. And then you go from Isaac. He gets old.

His sons grow up. Jacob and Esau and Jacob. Esau being the older. And when Isaac is too old, his eyes get all dim. His hearing gets all dim. And he's easy to dupe. Jacob sees it as an opportunity. His mother encouraged him. He dupes him and says, I want the blessing.

Even though I'm not the first child, I want the blessing. He dupes his father. He dupes his brother. And what ends up happening is, just like Abraham, when you, when you go about your own way, you make a muck of it. And next thing you know, he has to run.

And it's so sad because although he loved his mother, he doesn't ever see his mother again. And he's married and Rebecca doesn't get to see her son. And then she dies. Jacob can't go back to his father because he's deceived him. Jacob now is in threat of his brother.

Esau said, I am going to kill that man. Literally, verbatim. I will kill him. Right? Jacob's life is shot. His relationship is all broken. What do we do? Take a look at Genesis chapter 28, verse 15 through 16. Genesis chapter 28, verse 16 through, I mean 15 through 16.

What's happening in the story as you turn there is Jacob is walking in the wilderness too, by himself. And he's so sad that in the evening he decides to lay down, but there's nothing to lay on. So he essentially lies on the side of the road in the dirt and is so dejected.

He's using a rock for a pillow and he's just sad. In that context, verse 15, behold, I am with you. I will keep you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not know it.

This is my encouragement to us this morning. So many different situations in our lives. We can feel pain. We can feel dejected. We can feel a sense of depression, anxiety, insecurity. What is the encouragement? Surely God is in this place. I just in the moment did not see it.

What's more, later on, Jacob is going to his relatives land because he has to go somewhere. And if you turn to Genesis chapter 31, in his journey over there, he meets Rachel, girl of his dreams, girl of his dreams. Looks like things are looking up, but what ends up happening is Jacob gets duped and then he ends up finding himself married to Rachel's sister who happens to be not so good looking.

And then what ends up happening is he ends up being swindled to work like three times as much as he was originally supposed to work. And next thing you know, not only is he married to both the sisters, but he's entangled with his family. And then what ends up happening is Lebon, the father-in-law starts to mistreat Jacob.

It says that he is no longer on friendly terms. He sees that Jacob essentially is a threat. And so they start to have animosity. What do you do? What do you do? Verse one, Genesis chapter 31 verse one, then the Lord said to Jacob, return to the land of your fathers, to the relatives.

I will be with you. I can just keep going just for the sake of time. What happens is when Jacob gets old, guess what? His 12 sons grow up. His 12 sons, many of them are very vile and wicked. They get angry at Joseph, the younger brother, because Joseph is a little proud.

Joseph is clearly the guy that Jacob loves most. He's got his like nice gown, almost like a royal robe. So then the brothers say, let's kill the guy. Oh no, wait, better yet, let's sell the guy. They sell him as a slave to the Egyptians. He gets sent on over there.

What do you do when you're sent as a slave by your own brothers? Do you know what it says? Genesis 39, two, the Lord was with Joseph and the Lord caused him to become a successful man. Joseph later on, he's falsely accused. He's falsely accused because he's working as a slave now.

He's been entrusted with a lot of things, but a wicked woman in the home, essentially Potiphar's wife, she's making advances towards him and she says, lie with me. He says, no. She says, lie with me and grabs on his shirt. He says no and he runs away. Now she thinks of this as an opportunity to falsely accuse this guy.

He gets accused and sent to jail. Three years he spends in jail. Three years. What do you do when you're, when you're falsely accused? When you're hurt because people think the worst of you rather than the better? People assume the wrong of you, judge you, make you feel like you're worse than you really are.

Genesis 29, 31. I mean, Genesis 29, 21, but the Lord was with Joseph, extended his kindness to Kim, gave him favor in the sight of the jailed chief. Brothers and sisters, the reason why I went through that exercise of going through the passages is to show you every one of these significant figures in the Bible, Jacob's a significant figure, Joseph's a significant figure.

They experienced a full gamut of life experiences that we would call affliction, pain, hurt. And the theme of the story is, and their success rested in God's presence. And their hope and rest, when they're in the anxiety of like, what do we do when something like this happens? How do I get out?

How do I get free? Their peace and rest comes with God's presence. And that is my encouragement to you this morning. Can we say along with Jacob, surely the Lord is in this place. Will our hearts be encouraged to say, perhaps I did not know it at the time, but God who is strong, God who sees, God who knows all things, God who hears, he is with me.

And that is the encouragement to you. And as a final way of exhorting, you know, after learning these truths, that God is the God, Yahweh El Roy, who hears, I'm sorry, who sees. And then learning about God, God Yahweh Shema, the God who is there. I think just exhortation is, let's remember that.

Let's acknowledge that. Hagar is not gonna forget. Her son is literally named after the event and the experience of God seeing her in the midst of pain and suffering. For us too, in our hearts and our minds, we need to remember the powerful God who is here with us everywhere.

The merciful God who intervenes, the gracious God who pours out his mercy in the time of need. In the time of need. But what's more, as we exercise this trust, we realize we get a better picture of God too. We exercise this trust and just as God sees us, we see God in a better light.

It's when we put our trust and faith in him, we understand to a greater degree through experiencing him, just how faithful and trustworthy he is. And that's why, to me it makes sense that we as believers practicing trust, we should be strong. We should be courageous. We should be persevering in our obedience in the midst of suffering.

We should be persevering in the midst of difficulties. And that is why God could even exhort us and command us in the scriptures to Joshua and say, "Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or dismayed for the Lord your God is with you." I hope that when we experience devastation, discouragement, conflict and affliction, those things happen and it's almost a regular pattern for those who are faithful.

But when we not be like those with no hope, with no peace, and over time they're still weak, because they're still trying so hard to find strength on their own. If we can neglect this truth that God sees and God hears and God is there, what will happen to us is this.

I mean think about what will happen to us. We're going to be in a moment of desperation and whatever comes our way, we're going to latch onto. Not only that, we're going to feel a sense of hardness and bitterness. If there's other people causing us affliction and pain, we're going to say, "Well, they ought to know what they did." We're going to sense a feel of desperation, "I want those people to know what's happening." And there's a sense of expression, explosion, frustration.

And in the end, all of that is going to ruin us. But for those of us who understand that God is a God who hears, who sees and who is there, we have hope for rest, peace, stability, security in our God who is so powerful. Amen. I hope that you guys are challenged to be strong and courageous in the presence of God.

Let's pray. Father God, we want to thank you so much again. We thank you God that Lord in the midst of our lives here, that you the God of the universe would care to know. And King David would ask, "Who are we that you would be even mindful of us?" And that question is right on.

We are but broken people. We are but sinners at times. But Lord, you esteem us and God, you give attention to us. We thank you so much that we read of the story of Hagar. And we are so encouraged that God, although she experienced so much pain, although she experienced so much difficulty, Lord, you appeared at the right time in the right way that you encouraged.

And God, you strengthen through your promise and through your presence. I pray that for every single one of us in this room, we would leave this place knowing how to deal with difficulty in our lives. I also pray that through this week, we would grow a hunger to say, "Father God, sometimes we feel like the answer is more finances.

We feel like the answer is just better people in our lives, people who will love us. Sometimes we think like the answer is just this change the environment scenario." But help us to have a true hunger for your presence. Knowing God, that the answer lies in you. We thank you so much, Lord, it's in Christ's name.

Amen. Why don't we take a break?